1.5.9-Kingedmundsroyalmurder
Brick!club chapter 9: of poverty, charity, and societal injustice Let’s do this. "La veuve du moine fut donc bonne à quelque chose." (The monk’s widow was thus good for something.) I’m not sure what Hugo is trying to say here. Is he saying that firing Fantine was a good thing? This seems strange, since Fantine is one of his main characters and he seems fond of her. Or is he just pointing out that Mme. Victurnien managed to accomplish something, whether or not that something was actually good? Anyway, we learn more about the woman Valjean put in charge of the women’s part of the factory. This part in particular is interesting: “remplie de la charité qui consiste à donner, mais n’ayant pas au même degré la charité qui consiste à comprendre et à pardonner.” (filled with the charity consisting of giving, but not having nearly as much of the charity that consists of understanding and forgiving.) I feel like that’s an extremely important distinction to make and I’m glad that Hugo made it. It’s something that we see all the time still, and the reason why you can simultaneously give to charity and scorn people for being on food stamps. I also note that the Bishop was explicitly stated to be very good at that second kind of charity, and he is at the moment the only person in the book who is with the exception of his sister. Even Valjean isn’t great at it yet, though presumably he will be. So this is interesting. This is how Hugo describes the process leading up to Fantine’s being fired: “C’est dans cette pleine puissance et avec la conviction qu’elle faisait bien, que la surveillante avait instruit le procès, jugé, condamné et exécuté Fantine.” (It was with this authority and with the conviction that she was doing good that the overseer had tried, judged, condemned, and executed Fantine.) That last word in particular stands out, and I’m not sure if it’s meant as foreshadowing or just as a comment on her chances now. Even if he’s using the word figuratively it’s still a powerful word to choose when he could have just said fired or something similar. Fantine is literally being condemned and the penalty for her transgressions is death. And that same reasoning is the main reason why no one in this book actually stands up for each other, with the exception of the (largely financially secure) Amis: if you make trouble, if you stand out, if you break the rules, then you’re dead and no one will stand up for you (which we’ve also seen with Valjean when no one except the Bishop, who is established as being weird, bothered to do anything to help him (well, the Marquise sort of did, but she thought he was a soldier)). That is a deeply bleak message, and it suddenly explains why we needed all those Bishop chapters at the beginning: without them no one would believe that he would actually help someone like Valjean. So anyway, Fantine doesn’t have a job and she can’t leave because she paid for her furniture on credit. I actually like that reminder that she’s still very young and used to being pampered. Apparently Cosette costs her 10 of 12 sous per day. Does this seem excessive, or is Fantine just seriously not making very much money? (Or, more likely, a combination of the two.) Thankfully, she has at least one person in her corner, which is a damn sight better than she used to have. And I can’t quite tell if Hugo is properly romanticizing extreme poverty or just admiring people’s ingenuity: ''On ne sait pas tout ce que certains êtres faibles, qui ont vieilli dans le dénûment et l’honnêteté, savent tirer d’un sou. Cela finit par ''être un talent. Fantine acquit ce sublime talent et reprit un peu de courage. ''We do not know all that certain fragile beings, who have grown old with want and honesty, know how to pull from a sou. It ends up being a ''talent. Fantine gained this sublime talent and regained a little courage. At least Fantine has some courage again, though she’s slowly killing herself. Frankly, even if she’d stayed in this situation instead of things getting even worse she’d probably have starved anyway, given this: “des souffrances, des inquiétudes, un peu de pain d’un côté, des chagrins de l’autre, tout cela me nourrira.” (suffering, worrying, a little bread on one side, sorrows on the other, all this will feed me.) Fantine, honey, suffering and sorrows are all very well but they don’t actually provide calories. It is actually a fair point about not being able to bring Cosette to her. Discounting the debt to the Thenardiers, she’s still only making 12 sous a day, which is not very much, and she can’t very well feed Cosette on sorrow and worry. No doubt she’d spend all her money on Cosette again and end up dying anyway, leaving Cosette to grow up like she did as a sort of gamine. Which would be interesting to see but probably not what Fantine wants for her. And Hugo’s snark returns briefly for this: “La vieille qui lui avait donné ce qu’on pourrait appeler des leçons de vie indigente était une sainte fille nommée Marguerite, dévote de la bonne dévotion, pauvre, et charitable pour les pauvres et même pour les riches,” (The old woman who had given her what we might call lessons in poverty was a sainted girl named Marguerite, devotee of good devotions, poor, and charitable for the poor and even for the rich.) I do like that Fantine eventually just went “fuck it” and went outside anyway. Good for you! Alas she’s already sick and only going to get worse from here. And just one more reminder of how pretty her hair is, just in case we’ve forgotten that it exists.